Gaming machines which provide players awards in primary or base games are well known. Gaming machines generally require the player to place or make a wager to activate the primary or base game. In many of these gaming machines, the award is based on the player obtaining a winning symbol or symbol combination and based on the amount of the wager (e.g., the higher the wager, the higher the award). Symbols or symbol combinations which are less likely to occur usually provide higher awards.
In such known gaming machines, the amount of the wager made on the base game by the player may vary. For instance, the gaming machine may enable the player to wager a minimum number of credits, such as one credit (e.g., one cent, nickel, dime, quarter or dollar) up to a maximum number of credits, such as five credits. This wager may be made by the player a single time or multiple times in a single play of a primary game. For instance, a slot game may have one or more paylines and the slot game may enable the player to make a wager on each payline in a single play of the primary game. Slot games with 1, 3, 5, 9, 15 and 25 paylines are widely commercially available. Thus, it is known that a gaming machine, such as a slot game, may enable players to make wagers of substantially different amounts on each play of the primary or base game ranging, for example, from one credit up to 125 credits (e.g., five credits on each of 25 separate paylines). This is also true for other wagering games, such as video draw poker, where players can wager one or more credits on each hand and where multiple hands can be played simultaneously.
In certain known gaming machines, the player wagers on a player selected number or combination of paylines. Following the wager, a plurality of reels are activated to spin to generate a plurality of symbols. After the reels spin, the gaming machine analyzes the generated symbols to determine, according to an applicable paytable, if a winning symbol or winning symbol combination is randomly generated on one or more of the wagered on paylines. If the gaming machine determines that a winning symbol or winning symbol combination is randomly generated on a wagered on payline, the gaming machine determines, according to the applicable paytable, an award value for the randomly generated winning symbol or winning symbol combination. The gaming machine then determines a payline award by multiplying the award value for the winning symbol or winning symbol combination by the amount wagered on the payline upon which the winning symbol or winning symbol combination was generated.
These known gaming machines are typically set to pay back, on average, a certain percentage of the amounts wagered by players at that gaming machine. The average percentage wagered that is provided back to players as awards is often referred to as the average expected payback percentage. The average expected payback percentage provided by such gaming machines is determined by the applicable paytable of the gaming machine. In these gaming machines, the paytable (including the winning symbol combinations and the awards associated with such winning symbol combinations) is static or otherwise predetermined. Thus, although the actual payback percentage may vary throughout game play, the average expected payback percentage for a gaming machine is predetermined and remains constant throughout game play. Accordingly, to increase player enjoyment and excitement, a need exists to provide new gaming machines which vary award returns and risk.
Progressive awards associated with gaming machines are also known. In one form, a progressive award is an award amount which includes an initial amount funded by a casino and an additional amount funded through a portion of each wager made on the progressive gaming machine. For example, 0.1% of each wager placed on the primary game of the gaming machine associated with the progressive award may be allocated to the progressive award or progressive award fund or pool. Such wager based funding of the progressive award fund or pool provides that these progressive awards are non-result driven awards. The progressive award grows in value as more players play the gaming machines and more portions of these players' wagers are allocated to the progressive award. When a player obtains a winning symbol or symbol combination associated with the progressive award, the accumulated progressive award is provided to the player. After the progressive award is provided to the player, the amount of the next progressive award is reset to the initial value and a portion of each subsequent wager on a gaming machine associated with a progressive award is allocated to the next progressive award.
A progressive award may be associated with or otherwise dedicated to a single or stand-alone gaming machine. Alternatively, a progressive award may be associated with or otherwise dedicated to multiple gaming machines which each contribute a portion of wagers placed at such gaming machine(s) to the progressive award. The multiple gaming machines may be in the same bank of gaming machines, in the same casino or gaming establishment (usually through a local area network (“LAN”)) or in two or more different casinos or gaming establishments (usually through a wide area network (“WAN”)). Such progressive awards are played for by one or more gaming devices in the same gaming establishment sometimes called local area progressives (“LAP”) and such progressive awards played for by a plurality of gaming devices at a plurality of different gaming establishments are sometimes called wide area progressives (“WAP”).
Moreover, a gaming machine or bank of gaming machines may be simultaneously associated with a plurality of progressive awards. In these multi-level progressive (“MLP”) configurations, a plurality of progressive awards start at different award or value levels, such as $10, $100, $1000 and $10,000 and each individually increment or increase until provided to a player. Upon a suitable triggering event at one of more of the gaming devices associated with the MLP, one or more of the progressive awards which form the MLP are provided to one or more of the players at such gaming devices.
While such progressive awards are popular amongst players, a number of problems exist with these known progressive award systems. First, only one person wins the progressive award. This may discourage the other players who have also been playing for a long period of time. Such discouragement can lead to players walking away with jackpot fatigue. Jackpot fatigue can occur when a player no longer finds an award desirable or worth the cost of continuing to play. This desire to quit playing is also due to the fact that a player may feel they must wait a substantial period of time for the jackpot to climb back to a high value. That is, when a progressive award is provided at a different gaming machine, a player may feel deflated and not wish to continue playing for a base or reset level progressive award. Additionally, because the mathematics and funding required to maintain the progressive awards at levels desirable to the player, such progressive awards are often won or hit infrequently.
There is a continuing need to provide new and different gaming machines and gaming systems as well as new and different ways to provide awards to players including bonus awards.